


Yesterday's Vow

by reikis



Series: Melody of the Reminiscing Star [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-16 05:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21502435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reikis/pseuds/reikis
Summary: He made a promise eons ago and not once has it left him.
Series: Melody of the Reminiscing Star [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540690
Kudos: 12





	Yesterday's Vow

He was breaking.

It wasn’t just that vessel he wore but his entire being was shattering.

Hades wanted to look away but he couldn’t.

There were times he could say he was proud of how strong his aetheric vision was.

Now? It was a curse.

He stared as the Emissary stumbled and fell to his knees, breathing in heavily and a hand over his chest. He was by his side in an instant, helping him with an arm around him.

By Zodiark, he hadn’t been like this day since He was summoned. As he swore in his god’s name, one emotion surged through him.

Doubt.

Doubt in his god. Doubt in everything they’ve done. Doubt in himself.

By the accursed mortals’ Twelve, he couldn’t save anyone.

He winced when he felt the dark air around them. He steadied his vision on Elidibus and recoiled when he was hit by the overwhelming Darkness. He steeled himself and held Elidibus tight, enduring it.

“Use me as best you can,” he whispered. “This is my fault.”

Yes, it was his fault. It was his fault Elidibus was like this. He was so desperate that day. He went against his best friends’ wishes, betrayed those two after he said he would reconsider the plan for Zodiark, and it all went downhill when he found Elidibus that day. He should have died. He was beyond healing. They just couldn’t stop those creatures.

Zodiark was the only way he could have saved him.

He gave half the world for him in the most selfish decision of his life.

The entire Convocation as well as Hythlodaeus watched him come to this decision and most would come to completely forget it. He wasn’t sure if on purpose or by chance with the tempering.

He struck a bargain with their newly created god.

The void those _creatures_ created within his friend would be filled with the Darkness. It was the only way he could have saved his life. They were chosen to live through grand sacrifice after sacrifice and he would become a vessel for Him.

Zodiark...

Hades bit his lip, swearing and swearing upon that name.

It should have been him in this terrible state. It wasn’t his decision to make. Elidibus hadn’t chosen this. Hades made a gamble with his life.

He finally urged Elidibus to sit properly, watching him place his head in his hands after he did. He was sweating from the immense pressure on his very soul, taking in forced breaths as to steady himself. He glanced up to Hades from behind his mask, meeting pale eyes, and leaned against him, his body giving out at this point.

With their numbers so low and even with Him dormant, Zodiark needed someone to feed off and what better target than His living host of Darkness.

Hades dreaded to consider what would happen to his friend when – if, at this point – Zodiark fully reawakened.

Elidibus suddenly arched forward, hands over his mouth.

Hades opened his senses and reached desperately for Elidibus himself, pushing the Darkness out of his way. He held a gasp when he felt his aether churn wildly before him in desperate attempts to calm itself. He was taken aback when he felt it crack before him under the strain. It was, he was, in a delicate state, Zodiark’s wild control threatening the Emissary’s very will.

He would break just as all those mortals do when they are tempered.

“Why do you refuse my aid?” questioned Hades. He lowered his eyes as Elidibus rested against his neck, lowering his hands. He could feel his labored breathing, those hasty pants.

“Your connection to Him has significantly weakened over the years,” Elidibus sighed out. He closed his eyes and reached for Hades’s free hand, holding it as best he could. Hades felt nervous when he felt his trembling. His expression shifted back into surprise when he suddenly felt Zodiark’s aether expand as if to let the Emissary breathe properly. He visibly seemed relieved. “Hades...” He leaned closer, appreciating the other man’s warmth. “I will free you from His control...”

The Architect’s eyes widened.

“My sight simply is not as strong as yours, but...” Elidibus paused, giving a small smile, “with your actions the years past, our lord’s tempering has lost much of its strength over you. It came with your mental detachment, regrettably. The simple fact you can question yourself remains proof enough.” Hades felt his body jerk. “Your own aether is so dense, I feel relieved of Him by simply being this close.” Hades tightened his grip over him as he spoke, trying to keep his words as even as ever. He had always been this way: level-headed and so sure of himself. “I vowed to them I would free you someday to repay my debt.”

"Them...”

Hades felt the tears in his eyes and made no move to stop them.

Hades himself distanced himself from them, regrettably, towards the end of their lives as he knew them. Before Hydaelyn took them and split them. He couldn’t stand to be around them after he summoned Zodiark. They had been so adamantly against the majority Convocation’s plan for their star. He breathed in. Elidibus was right. There was always this feeling in him when he tried to rebel against Zodiark’s control – against what He wanted him to say and think – but now he could truly reflect on his actions the past eons. He could think for himself.

And that’s how it truly came crashing down.

Everything he had done.

He had abandoned his best friends to save another. He couldn’t bear that loss but, in the process, he had lost everything. Those two were so far out of his reach and the one person he had left was suffering as a result of _his_ actions. He was right. He was always so short-sighted, worried about now and not what was to come. He had long-term goals, sure, but they were just that. He never, not once, stopped to think about what he was doing both before and after Zodiark.

It never stopped there. He only thought about himself when he all but abandoned his own plans for the Rejoining, merely letting Lahabrea and Elidibus go about their business. He slipped through the cracks in Zodiark’s tempering and nearly lost himself throughout it all. He likely would have become a true shell of a man if he continued. He was practically there.

Had Elidibus not intervened.

Had Elidibus been there, all those times, to bring him back to Zodiark with the tempering all but faded away? No, no, not after what he said.

Elidibus was _free_ when he was with him.

Those moments were the closest to normality they could ever hope to achieve like this.

After all these years and with Zodiark’s control, Elidibus still remembered his pledge to Hades’s friends. For Hades’s happiness, he kept moving forward.

“I have never even properly given you my thanks with Him influencing me,” Elidibus murmured as if slicing right through the self-loathing, pushing his mask into Hades’s neck in the silence. Hades ignored the cold of it, collecting himself.

“You need not,” he finally managed. He brought Elidibus closer. “Just promise me you will live through all this as well.”

Elidibus blinked, staring up at the taller man through his mask. He shifted in Hades’s grasp and lowered his mask from his face to reveal the light purple eyes of this vessel, a strand of white hair falling over his cheek. He smiled wide. It wasn’t born of malice, contempt, or scheming as it had been throughout the eons he has been tempered. It was genuine, born of his soul and free of any being’s presence nor Darkness.

It was simply Elidibus.

"I promise, Hades.”


End file.
